2013 NFL DRAFT: WIDE RECEIVERS

A position-by-position look at prospects in this year’s NFL Draft. This entry: Wide Receivers.

INDIANAPOLIS – Week after week went by and as Terrance Williams continued to add 100-yard receiving performances to his prolific résumé, the All-American receiver would prop his feet up on Sundays and watch a pair of former teammates excel as NFL rookies.

Back in Waco, Texas, Williams witnessed former Baylor wide receivers Josh Gordon and Kendall Wright rank among the top of all rookie wide receivers knowing that in less than a year he would get his chance to follow suit.

While Williams was busy turning in a school-record senior season with 97 catches and 1,832 receiving yards, a pair of former Bears was debunking any myth of being products of a particular system.

“It shows we know how to make plays and we can go to different teams and do it,” Williams said of Gordon and Wright’s rookie production.

Williams was a part of a revival of the Baylor football program, finishing the 2011 and 2012 seasons ranked, with bowl victories for the first time in nearly 30 years.

Following an All-Big 12 junior campaign (59 catches for 957 yards), Williams elected to return to Waco having to play without Heisman Trophy Winner Robert Griffin III.

“My mom wanted me to finish school. I needed to be more consistent than last year,” Williams said.

When Williams arrived as a freshman in 2008, he redshirted and then progressed from primarily a kick returner into setting eight school records.

Wright was right there with Williams back in 2008 as a wide-eyed freshman and even though he has since moved on to a first-round pick, the 2013 potential first-round wide receiver knows where to turn when he has questions about the next level.

“(Wright) was my first friend when I got to Baylor. He’s helped me so much,” Williams said.

“We talk daily. He told me to keep being me and to do what I’m capable of doing.”

Williams showed all of college football what he is capable of doing with a year that ended in being named a finalist for the Biletnikoff Award, an honor given to the nation’s top receiver.

He turned in a 17-catch, 314-yard effort against No. 9 West Virginia and led the nation with an average of 140.9 receiving yards per game.

Perhaps the only critique to Williams’ game is whether or not he can expand his route running at the next level.

The big-play ability is there (15 receptions for at least 40 yards in 2012) and now Williams is answering the question of whether or not he will follow in his former teammates’ footsteps and become a complete receiver.

“People say that I can’t (run) routes,” Williams said. “It’s just a matter of time until people finally start seeing I can run routes. That’ll be the time that people will be surprised.”